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Friday, August 5, 2011

Scenes From the Last Week

On Saturday, July 31st the K12s, K13s, and K14s of K-Pod headed south past Lime Kiln. They later met up wtih the L12s, J-Pod, and the other four K-Pod whales off the south end of the island. Here's K25 Scoter with his nephew K38 Comet:

On August 1st I was at the redoubt near American Camp when I came across a pair of "teenage" foxes. This one hopped up on the fence to get a better look at me over the tall grass:

On the way home, I had to pull over to snap a shot of this amazing rural scene with Mt. Baker in the background:

Speaking of Mt. Baker, it was looking especially striking in the evening of August 2nd. I went up to the deck above our marina to take this shot:

Today I went birding down at American Camp. I heard a young bald eagle making a lot of racket near the visitor's center, but it took me a while to locate him - a dark bird hidden in the shadows of the trees. I wonder what all the fuss was about?

Another pair of birds making some noise nearby also caught my attention. They turned out to be a pair of western wood-pewees - cool!

I made another stop at Jackson Beach to look for shorebirds, and I wasn't disappointed. There were 13 killdeer out on the spit. A small flocks of peeps was also foraging nearby. I crouched down and they slowly approached me. Just when I was ready to take a photo, they all took flight! This was the result:

There were 5 western sandpiper and 3 least sandpipers in the mix. I also found six greater yellowlegs. This time the "sit and wait" method was a little more successful, as a pair of them were feeding in the shallows and got close enough for me to take this shot:

They're almost hard to see in the above photo (except for the legs), but the pictures where there was gravel in the background they were almost completely camouflaged! There was also a flock of about 20 mew gulls on the sand spit, and I was surprised to see a pair of Caspian terns hanging out with them! I occasionally see a tern flying overhead at Jackson Beach, but this was the first time I've seen them on the ground there.

As you can tell from all the above photos, the weather has been pretty nice this week! We're finally getting some summer weather now that it's August. Here's hoping it continues through the weekend so I can have some more sunny wildlife encounters.

I continue to enjoy your articles and photos. Had a question about an ID this time. Sure looks like a photo of a Boreal Pewee (aka Olive-sided Flycatcher) to me! What did the vocalizations sound like? Most of the OSFL calls at this time of year are a loud and repetitive "pip,pip,pip".

Mark - You may very well be right. I struggle with these two species when they aren't singing. I leaned towards wood-pewees because this is the very location I found them in earlier this year when they were singing. It wasn't a very loud noise they were making but it was agitated as they were harassing a crow when I noticed them....I can't remember any more than that. Hmmm. What about the image makes you think OSFL?

It has a really bulky body with a somewhat unkempt look. Most importantly, the central white belly feathers extend well up into the breast instead of fading to olive like it should on the smaller Contopus.

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About Me

I'm a wildlife photographer, nature writer, and marine naturalist. I focus mostly on orcas and birds, but am curious about all things in nature. In 2007 I graduated from Reed College with a degree in biology, where I focused on animal behavior and evolutionary ecology and completed my senior thesis on killer whale bioacoustics. Also in 2007 I published my first book, Orca Encounters: Images of Southern Resident Killer Whales. I'm one of the founding members of the Salish Sea Association of Marine Naturalists (SSAMN). You can always reach me at monika.wieland at gmail.com.

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